Time Walk
A Co-operative Estate Off the High Street
This short street was built not for the wealthy but for Norwood's working people. Walking along it today, a visitor passes a run of modest cottages on one side and the long boundary wall of West Norwood Cemetery close by.
Beneath the present name lies an earlier one: the road was laid out as Elm Grove, only taking its current name in 1891. That older identity, and the co-operative venture that built the first houses here, are the subject of the next section.
Name Origin
From Elm Grove to Dunbar Street
The street was originally called Elm Grove, and was renamed Dunbar Street in 1891. The sources used here do not explain why the name Dunbar was chosen, or what, if anything, it commemorates.
History
Cottages for the Working Classes
The Lower Norwood Co-operative Building Company erected the first working-class cottages on the Elm Grove estate in 1865. The land had formerly been copyhold of Lambeth Manor, but had been enfranchised before the company bought it. Each pair of cottages held four separate lettings, with their own entrances, and cost £330 to build — £82 10s per letting.
Seven pairs of these cottages originally stood on the north side of the street. Three survive today, at Nos. 1–11, described in a 2003 conservation report as a group of historical significance built as model dwellings for Norwood's working classes.
Each pair of 1865 cottages on Dunbar Street held four separate lettings behind their own front doors — working-class housing built, in effect, as four homes in one building.
Recent Times
Flood, Clearance and Survival
The street has not always been quiet. On 14 June 1914 a thunderstorm sent the River Effra up out of its sewer and flooded Dunbar Street. Later in the twentieth century, Victorian dwellings nearby were cleared as slums, or for higher-density housing, and replaced by newer houses and flats. Against that pattern, three pairs of the original 1865 cottages at Nos. 1–11 survived, judged significant enough by 2003 to be proposed for protection.
Today
Beside the Cemetery Wall
Some of the houses on Dunbar Street still abut the boundary wall of West Norwood Cemetery, close to its former Hubbard Road entrance. A short walk off Norwood High Street, it remains a small, largely overlooked pocket of mid-Victorian co-operative housing.
On the Map
Dunbar Street Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Dunbar Street?
The street was originally called Elm Grove and was renamed Dunbar Street in 1891. The sources used here do not explain why the name Dunbar was chosen.
What is Dunbar Street known for?
It is known for the surviving 1865 model cottages at Nos. 1–11, built by the Lower Norwood Co-operative Building Company for working-class tenants, three of an original seven pairs.
When was Dunbar Street flooded?
On 14 June 1914, a thunderstorm caused the River Effra to emerge from its sewer and flood the street.